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Value chain finance to develop the honey sub-sector in India
01.10.2008
Value chain finance is critical in every context to enable low-income producers/ growers to start and expand their enterprises and to help them increase their incomes sustainably. This article documents how credit was important when EDA Rural Systems attempted to develop a beekeeping sub-sector by facilitating bank loans to beekeepers though this has been a challenging task for the EDA project team. Later, on the basis of a value chain assessment of the sub-sector and the experience gained, EDA adopted a more comprehensive approach to addressing other issues limiting the overall growth of the sub-sector. Facilitating credit to beekeepers and other enterprises in the value chains became even more important. Our experience in this subsector suggests that while several other appropriate interventions have to be designed and implemented along with facilitating bank finance to enterprises if a systemic change has to be effected, value chain finance has to make its own contribution to the overall development of a sub-sector.